My thoughts on “The Daughters of Yalta” by Catherine Grace Katz.

The Daughters of Yalta – The Churchills, Roosevelts and Harrimans: A story of love and war (William Collins, 2020) was written by American historian Catherine Grace Katz.  It tells of the part played behind the scenes at the Allied Powers conference at Yalta in February 1945 by Sarah Churchill, Kathleen Harriman and Anna Roosevelt Boettiger.  Their letters and observations describing the atmosphere in the Crimea and the character and mood of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, and their military chiefs, make absorbing and illuminating reading.

Katz also chronicles the fascinating and eventful lives the three women led both before and after the ten days they spent in Yalta as aides to their fathers.  Although Averell Harriman did not attend the plenary sessions, he and his daughter played key roles in setting up the conference and were there throughout.

My favourite quote from the book was that of Roosevelt’s chief of staff Admiral William Leahy concerning the Polish agreement Roosevelt and Churchill had negotiated with Stalin: “Mr. President, this is so elastic that the Russians can stretch it all the way from Yalta to Washington without technically breaking it.”

Stalin got, or would shortly get, everything he wanted.  Everything being control of Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe which was something Churchill opposed, but, not having Roosevelt’s backing, did not have the power to prevent.  The fact that Britain went to war in the cause of Polish freedom did not interest Roosevelt who seems to have been obsessed with setting up the United Nations, and receiving Stalin’s backing for it, above all else.

The book also notes the role played during the war by Sarah Churchill and her sister-in-law Pamela in promoting Anglo-American relations.  Churchill’s habit of welcoming US diplomats into his family home resulted in their affairs with, respectively, the American ambassador to Britain, John Gilbert Winant, and American ambassador to the Soviet Union, Averell Harriman. The two women doubtless did as much to foster the “special relationship” as Churchill, Eden or anyone else in the British Government of the day!

My thoughts on " Merlin - The Story of the Engine That Won the Battle of Britain and WW2" by Graham Hoyland.

Just read Merlin - The Story of the Engine That Won the Battle of Britain and WW2 (William Collins, 2020) by Graham Hoyland.  An absorbing read about the engine, the aircraft it powered, those who designed it, built it, and flew it.

It also tells the story of the aero-engine from the time of the Wright brothers to the arrival of Sir Frank Whittle’s jet engine.  Hoyland compares the Merlin with contemporary British, American and German engines.  He also discusses the pros and cons of air-cooled and water-cooled engines.

As well as the Spitfire, Hurricane, Mosquito and Lancaster the book mentions the highly significant move to install a Merlin in the North American P51 Mustang.  The Mustang was transformed from a competent low and medium level single seat fighter into perhaps the finest long-range air superiority fighter of WW2 by replacing its American Allison engine with a Merlin.

Having won air superiority in the Battle of Britain powering the Spitfire and Hurricane, the Merlin enabled the Mustang to do the same over Germany and North West Europe in 1944.  As Hoyland writes: “When Goering saw Mustangs over Berlin he was reported to have said that at last the game was up”.

There was also a de-tuned land based version of the Merlin called the Meteor which was eventually fitted to thousands of British tanks.

The book is well worth reading!

The Somerset village of Dinder and its Church of St. Michael.

The sleepy Somerset village of Dinder lies tucked away in the southern foothills of the Mendips.  It is but a short drive off the road between Wells and Shepton Mallet, and this summer I took the opportunity to explore it.  Dinder does not appear to have changed much since members of The Women’s Institute described it 35 years ago.

The Somerset Village Book (Countryside Books, 1988) compiled by The Somerset Federation of Women’s Institutes provides this charming chronicle of the village.

“The little village of Dinder, with its 150 inhabitants, lies in the valley between Wells and Shepton Mallet.  It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Denrenn, meaning ‘in a valley deep between high hills’ – an apt description because Doulting Water, or River Sheppey, rushes along one boundary, and the Mendip Hills rise steeply on either side.

It has been an agricultural village, and it is known that clothing was made here in the 18^th century when there was a leather mill.  An old forge provided services in the main street, in a house still bearing that name.  Along this street the river has been partially diverted to form a wide leat of running water in which the village people could dip their buckets, and this makes a picturesque foreground for a row of 16^th century gabled cottages and a former public house which still displays the sign of ‘The Dragon on the Wheel’, being the crest of the local squire.  Two farmhouses and the Victorian school building also overlook the water.”

I parked by the village hall at the western end of the village, and walked down to the Church of St. Michael.  The impressive lych-gate is dedicated to Ellen Somerville while inside the lych-gate is a commemorative plaque dedicated to Arthur Fownes Somerville who died on the 21^st November 1942 at the impressive age of 92.  I would find more memorials to members of the Somerville family both in the churchyard and inside the church.

The lych-gate at St. Michaels Church in the Somerset village of Dinder.

The commemorative plaque to Arthur Fownes Somerville.  Note the family crest of 'The Dragon on the Wheel'.

The approach to Dinder’s Church of St. Michael is beautifully described by Arthur Mee in his The King’s England – Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968).  He writes:

“We walk up the path to the church with its fine north wall across our view, crowned with a parapet from which friendly gargoyles look down at the top of slender buttresses.  Very dainty is the arcading in the battlements, and charming is the tower with its stair turret to the bells”.

The north wall of the Church of St. Michael in the Somerset village of Dinder.

To the left of the path is the family plot of the Somerville family which includes the grave of James Fownes Somerville, Admiral of the Fleet and Squire of Dinder, of whom I have written previously:

Views from Somerset: Admiral Sir James Somerville, commander of Force H, the squadron which crippled the Bismarck, at rest in a Somerset churchyard in the village of Dinder. (viewfromsomerset.blogspot.com)

 

On the north wall of the nave is a brass plaque commemorating William Charles Croom a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 6^th London Regiment who was killed in action at Messines Ridge on 17th June 1917 when aged 20.  He is also remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium.

Another plaque on the north wall is “in ever grateful memory of the brave men of Dinder who fell in The Great War”.  It lists 6 names.  As well as Lt. William Croom it commemorates the following men:

Private Uriah James Clarke of the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars died on 23^rd March 1918.  He is also remembered on the Poziers Memorial north east of Albert.

Private Gilbert Drew of the 1^st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry who died on the 1^st July 1917 aged 19.  He is at rest in a Commonwealth War Grave in the churchyard.

Private Francis Allen Keevil of “C” Company, 7^th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry died on the 7^th August 1917.  He is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.  Aged 38, he was the son of Jabez Allen Keevil and Francis Augusta Keevil of Rose Cottage, Dinder.

Private William Robert McCullagh of the 1^st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry died on 29^th March 1918.  He is remembered on the Arras Memorial.

The last name listed on the plaque is that of George Palmer.  There are 24 “George Palmers” recorded on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website as having died in World War One.  Sadly, I cannot find among them anyone connected to Dinder or the County of Somerset.

Another brass plaque on the north wall of the nave is in memory of Lieutenant Colonel Harold Fownes Somerville DSO who served with The Rifle Brigade during the First World War and died aged 65 on the 19^th March 1946, and his son Lieutenant Mark Fownes Somerville DSC who was killed in action on 8^th May 1941 while serving aboard HMS ARK ROYAL.

Mark Somerville was a Fleet Air Arm observer in the Fulmar-equipped 808 Squadron flying from the aircraft carrier HMS ARK ROYAL.  He flew with the squadron’s commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Rupert Claude Tillard DSC.

The Fairey Fulmar was a two-seat fighter and reconnaissance aircraft powered by a single Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and armed with eight .303 machine guns mounted in the wings.  It was widely used by the Fleet Air Arm in the Mediterranean during the early years of World War Two.  The Fulmar was more than a match for any German and Italian bombers or reconnaissance aircraft it might encounter.  However, it struggled to cope with the enemy single seat fighters it came up against.  Tillard and Somerville destroyed six Italian aircraft while flying the Fulmar, a feat for which they were both awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

On 6^th May 1941 ARK ROYAL left Gibraltar together with the battlecruiser HMS RENOWN, the light cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD and nine destroyers – the famous Force H – to escort a convoy of five ships with vital reinforcements for British forces in Egypt.  Force H’s mission was to take the convoy as far as Malta where ships of Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet would escort it eastward to the port of Alexandria.

The convoy was first attacked by Italian aircraft on the 8^th May.  808 Squadron attempted to intercept a number of torpedo-bombers, but the Fulmars were themselves attacked by Italian fighters.  One Fulmar was shot down, that of Lieutenant Commander Tillard and Lieutenant Somerville. Rupert Tillard’s body came ashore on the Tunisian Coast, and he was subsequently buried in the Commonwealth War Grave cemetery at Enfidaville.  Mark Somerville’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Fleet Air Arm Memorial at Lee-on-Solent as well as in St. Michael’s Church.

The deaths of the two airmen were not in vain as Force H delivered the convoy, without loss, into the protection of the Mediterranean Fleet.  One merchant ship was later sunk by a mine, but 238 tanks and 40 Hurricane fighters arrived safely in Alexandria on 12^th May.  Interestingly, Force H was commanded by Lt. Somerville’s uncle, Admiral Sir James Somerville.

By a remarkable twist of fate another Lieutenant Mark Somerville was killed while serving in the Royal Navy 183 years earlier. A plaque on the north wall of the tower of St. Michael’s begins:

“Sacred to the Memory of Mark Somerville Esq Lieutenant of His Majesty’s Ship The Rochester who unfortunately lost his Life in doing his Duty and exerting himself to save the Lives of his Gallant Countrymen when attacked by the Enemy in St. Cas Bay.  September 11^th 1758 in the 23 Year of his Age”

The plaque must refer to The Battle of St. Cast Bay which took place during The Seven Years War with France.  The war saw Britain launch a series of amphibious assaults against French ports and possessions around the world.  In 1758 a number of these assaults took place on the northern coast of France in order to destroy ports, divert French troops from Germany and stop the activities of French privateers.  The last of these attacks was against Cherbourg when the Royal Navy landed a force of around 10,000 troops and supporting arms.  The attack was initially a great success as the Port of Cherbourg, its docks and ships therein were destroyed and a large amount of war material also destroyed or seized. 

The British force moved on to attack Saint Malo, but found it too well defended and so moved west to St. Cast Bay where it would be embarked from the beaches.

Meanwhile, the French had gathered 9,000 soldiers and militiamen and marched in pursuit.  The bulk of the British force had been taken off the beaches when the French arrived.  Despite covering fire from the British ships in the bay the French overwhelmed the British rear-guard of 1,500 men.

HMS ROCHESTER was a 4^th rate ship of just over 1,000 tons and armed with 50 guns.  Reading between the lines of the plaque it could be assumed that Lieutenant Somerville was killed while attempting to embark men from the beach using ROCHESTER’S ship’s boats.

On the south wall of the nave is a plaque commemorating Pilot Officer Thomas Middlebrook Horsefall, RAFVR, whose aircraft crashed in the village on July 3^rd 1942.   Thomas Horsefall was flying an American Curtiss P40 Tomahawk single engine fighter from No. 41 Operational Training Unit, part of the School of Army Cooperation, based at Oatlands Hill, a satellite station of RAF Old Sarum in Wiltshire.  The P40 was not used by RAF Fighter Command or the USAAF in Northern Europe as its performance did not match that of the latest German fighters, but it was used extensively by British and American front-line squadrons in other theatres of war.

St. Michaels Church also contains some fine stained glass windows, and a highly and beautifully decorated stone pulpit dated 1621. 

Stained glass window in St. Michael's Church, Dinder, Somerset in memory of Emily Somerville "who entered into rest on New Year's Day 1900 aged 81.

The pulpit in the Church of St. Michael, Dinder, Somerset.

I walked back to the main street and took some more photos of this picturesque and peaceful Mendip village – so peaceful, in fact, that I never saw or met a soul during my visit!

The main street in the Somerset village of Dinder.

 

My thoughts on Will Iredale's 'The Pathfinders', a story of Bomber Command's No.8 Group in World War Two.

Just read The Pathfinders by Will Iredale (W. H. Allen, 2021).  It tells an all-round story of RAF Bomber Command’s No.8 Group during World War ll. The why, how, when, who and where are all meticulously researched. In addition the reader is given a sense of realism by excerpts from diaries and letters from those who were there, and their families. 

The Pathfinders C.O. Air Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett, and his crews, not only had to confront the German flak, nightfighters, and the weather, but also had to deal with sniping and obstruction from senior Bomber Command Officers, and even ‘Bomber’ Harris himself.

The book is an absorbing tribute to the crews, scientists and senior officers who made the war-winning success of No.8 Group, and Bomber Command, possible. 

It does for The Pathfinders what Iredale’s The Kamikaze Hunters (Macmillan, 2015), his previous work, does for the Fleet Air Arm squadrons serving with the British Pacific Fleet.  Both books make extensive use of eyewitness accounts which gives the reader the feel of being in the air, and the action, with them.

The South Somerset village of Ilton, and its historic links to education, transport and war.

The South Somerset village of Ilton has an interesting history with connections to a distinguished Somerset family, a railway, a canal, and a military airfield.  It has a number of wonderfully picturesque Grade II listed buildings which compensate for the rather drab sprawl of characterless new housing north of the village green.

I approached the southern fringe of Ilton along Cad Road.  A pretty cottage beside the road, one of several, displayed a pair of boxing hares on the ridge of its thatched roof. 

A pair of boxing hares on a thatched cottage roof at Ilton in South Somerset.

A little further on I came across some almshouses and stopped to have a closer look.  The almshouses and its stone gateway and boundary wall are both Grade II listed.  The inscription on the stone above the gate reads: “THIS HOUSE WAS FOUNDED BY JOHN WHETSTONE GENTLEMAN FOR THE RELEEFE OF THE PORE OF ILTON ANODNI 1634”.  Whetstone's Almshouses originally had a chapel at one end of the building, but the chapel windows, although still visible in outline, were filled in early in the twentieth century when the building was modernised. 

Whetstone's Almshouses at Ilton in South Somerset. 

Another set of almshouses on the south west fringe of the village were set up by the ancient Wadham family.  In 1999 these were modernised out of all recognition. 

Maxwell Fraser in his Companion into Somerset (Methuen & Co. Ltd. London, 1947) has this to say of the Wadhams and John Whetstone.

Ilton, north of Ilminster, and on the other side of the river (Isle), which takes a big bend eastwards, has a church containing brasses to the Wadhams,  . . . The Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham who founded Wadham College showed very enlightened views, and anticipated some modern reforms . . .   This same Nicholas also founded a pretty row of almshouses at Ilton, and another group of seventeenth century almshouses there have an inscription to “John Whetstone, Gentleman”.  He is said to have derived his name from the fact that he was found in a manger with a bundle of whetstones.  He grew up to achieve success and riches, and founded the almshouses as a thank-offering”.

Having turned off Cad Road toward the village centre I came across a Grade II listed former chapel, now a picturesque cottage-like home.  A little further on I passed Ilton Court, another Grade II listed building.  In 1700 one John Scott was resident there and was said to have the title of “Overseer of Ilton’s poor”.

Ilton Court in the village of Ilton, South Somerset.

Arriving at The Wyndham Arms one is at the centre of old Ilton.  The village green opposite the pub has the Grade II listed Drake’s Farmhouse to its south while to the east is the Church of St. Peter and, hidden behind the trees, its former vicarage now known as Merryfield House – also Grade II listed.

 

The Wadham family.

The manor of Ilton and the manorial seat of Merryfield Manor were acquired by Sir John Wadham in the late fourteenth century and the moated manor house became the family’s principal residence.  The Wadhams were a philanthropic family, and Oxford-educated Nicholas Wadham (1532-1609), who inherited in 1577, devoted considerable amounts of his wealth to educational purposes.  He intended to establish a college at Oxford, but died before his plan came to fruition and it was subsequently overseen by his widow Dorothy.  Wadham College was founded in 1610 and completed in 1613.

After Dorothy’s death in 1618 the Wadhams’ lands were inherited by Nicholas’ nephew Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham near Williton and became part of a substantial estate.

Merryfield Manor did not appeal to Sir John and appears to have been demolished shortly after Dorothy Wadham’s death.  Material from the site is said to have been re-used for the construction of several local buildings, including Ilton Court.  Nothing is left of Merryfield Manor today except the remains of the moat and some overgrown remnants of wall.

The Canal.

The Taunton to Chard canal, which passed just to the west of Ilton, opened in 1842, but failed to make profits and was closed in 1866 on the coming of the railway.  It was originally planned to be a section of the ambitious Bristol Channel to English Channel Ship Canal which would stretch from Stolford to Beer, but the project failed to obtain sufficient financial backing.

The Railway.

The Taunton to Chard Railway, opened in 1866, was 15 miles long with halts at Thornfalcon, Hatch Beauchamp, Ilton, Ilminster and Donyatt.  The line was closed in 1962, before The Beeching Axe, as it was thought to be unviable due to low passenger numbers.   

It would have been a wonderful local transport asset today, but sadly, or one might say outrageously, the track was taken up and many of the bridges demolished.

 

The Airfield.

Merryfield airfield was built to be a Second World War Royal Air Force bomber base.  It was to have been named RAF Isle Abbotts after the small village to the north, but was renamed RAF Merryfield after the manorial estate it was built on.

After it opened in early February 1944 it soon became home to the 4 squadrons of 441^st Troop Carrier Group of 50^th Troop Carrier Wing of the USAAF. The group was equipped with Douglas C47 Skytrains, a military version of the civilian Douglas DC3, and Waco Hadrian gliders in preparation for the Normandy landings.  In the late evening of June 5 1944 the group carried over 1,400 US airborne troops, a contingent of the 101^st Airborne Division, to France and made further sorties the next day air-dropping reinforcements of troops and supplies.

After D-Day the US 61^st Field Hospital was established in a large tented area, with an associated ambulance park, at Merryfield on July 19 1944 to deal with wounded evacuated by air from Normandy. The wounded were transported by road to the US 67^th General Hospital at Musgrove Camp, Taunton.

By September the USAAF had left Merryfield for airfields in France, and the RAF took back possession.*

In the 1950s, during the rapid expansion of air power in the early cold war years, the RAF and RN used Merryfield for training pilots.  By 1961 the airfield was no longer in use and was left almost abandoned. Then in 1971 the RN moved in to use it as a satellite station for nearby RNAS Yeovilton – a purpose it still fulfils today.

The Church of St. Peter in the village of Ilton, South Somerset.

Just inside the gateway to Ilton’s Church of St. Peter are the Commonwealth War Graves of two young RAF pilots who were killed, during 1952, whilst serving with No. 208 Advanced Flying School based at RAF Merryfield.  Both lost their lives flying the RAF’s early jet fighter, the single seat de-Havilland Vampire, at a time when the armed forces were rapidly expanding to meet the threat of The Cold War. 

On June 23 1952 Pilot Officer Allan Durham’s Vampire broke away from a formation at 28,000 ft.  It dived into the ground near Chudleigh in Devonshire.  It is thought his oxygen supply failed and he passed out at the controls.  Allan Durham was nineteen years old and was from Sheffield. **

On September 25 1952 Pilot Officer John William Gillard’s Vampire came out of cloud at about 1,000 ft and crashed close to Burton Woods, Curry Rivel.  It is believed the aircraft entered cloud and the pilot opened the hood to clear ice from the windscreen.  In doing so the slipstream removed his helmet, which was found over a mile away from the crash site, and probably knocked him unconscious.  John Gillard was also only nineteen years old and was born in East Greenwich, London. **

Land for Ilton’s village cemetery was acquired in that same year of 1952; sadly, more young RAF men were to be killed while serving at RAF Merryfield and would later be laid to rest there.

Sources:

*Somerset at War 1939-1945, Mac Hawkins (The Dovecote Press Ltd., 1988)

**Wings over Somerset, Peter Forrester (The History Press, 2012)

A Spring drive south through Somerset and Devonshire to Seaton.

During a fine afternoon in the last week in April I took a leisurely drive down the A358 to Seaton in Devonshire.  On the way I passed through Chard and Axminster.  Chard was unusually quiet, but Axminster seemed even more subdued than usual, its town centre ever more deserted every time I pass through.

Looking down High Street and Fore Street in Chard, Somerset on a quiet Spring afternoon.

I find it strange that Axminster town centre is so quiet, with many empty premises.  When one considers the amount of housebuilding that has gone on around the town over recent years, the shops, restaurants and bars ought to be thriving!

The centre of Axminster in Devonshire on a quiet Spring afternoon this year.

Driving on through the gently undulating countryside I passed by Musbury which rests below the ancient hillfort of the same name, crossed over the A3052 and took the road which follows the River Axe down to Axmouth and into Seaton.

Seaton was quiet with plenty of room to park on the seafront - which I did.  Hardly any people were on the beach, and very few were walking along the seafront.

The seafront at Seaton in Devonshire on a quiet Spring afternoon this year. One seagull, one car and one pedestrian!

I walked as far west as was practicable before retracing my steps.  It seems that the Hook and Parrot pub is to be redeveloped into apartments and named The Lookout.  The advert on the former public house suggests it will be rebuilt with gable ends facing the sea, reassuringly in keeping with its neighbouring buildings.  It will not look so out of place as the carbuncle – known as Seaton Beach Apartments – on the seafront further east.

The Hook and Parrot public house in Seaton, Devonshire closed for redevelopment.

The Hook and Parrot reincarnated as The Lookout.

I continued east along the seafront then turned left into Trevelyan Road and then right to cross over the bridge to Axmouth Harbour.  Walking along the harbour side I reached The Prow which sits atop the old World War Two artillery emplacement. It is a convenient spot to enjoy the views across the harbour entrance and out over Seaton Bay.  Those WW2 gunners certainly had an excellent field of fire!

The view from The Prow, Axmouth Harbour entrance in Devonshire.

A small fishing boat just outside the harbour entrance was attracting lots of seagulls. Inside the harbour a couple of people were throwing something into the water for their dog to fetch which did not seem very sensible – I certainly would not have done such a thing.

A fishing boat surrounded by seagulls at Seaton in Devonshire.

Axmouth Harbour in Devonshire.

Walking back over the bridge I stopped to take some photos of the yachts and pleasure craft at their sheltered moorings.  The clear blue sky and lush green of the grounds of Haven Cliff House made a pleasing picture.  Seaton and the Axe Valley were very well fortified during WW2.  Two pill-boxes can be seen in the grounds of Haven Cliff House, one at the clifftop and another beside the drive up to the house.

Axmouth Harbour in Devonshire on a Spring afternoon this year.  Note the World War Two pill-box on the cliff edge above and to the left of the houses.

On my journey home I stopped in a lay-by just south of Axminster.  The hedgerow beside it is usually too high to see over, but it had been trimmed enough to allow me to take some photos.  The fields, trees, thatched cottages and rolling hills beyond made a pleasant scene.

A view of the Devonshire countryside south of Axminster.

I drove on again through Axminster, still very quiet, and headed north for Somerset and home.

The Church of St. James the Less in the South Somerset village of Hambridge.

The Church of St. James the Less at Hambridge is a prominent landmark beside the B3168 between Ilminster and Curry Rivel in South Somerset.

Work on the church began in 1842 and was completed in 1844.  Worshippers from Hambridge and Westport were thus saved a two mile and three and a half mile journey respectively as previously their nearest church was St. Andrew’s in Curry Rivel.

When passing it, as I often do, I find the Church of St. James the Less pleasing to the eye standing as it does among the trees in its very tidily maintained churchyard.  However, Pevsner is rather unkind and describes the church as: “Very dull.  The west tower too low for the nave roof.  The best thing about the church is the two splendid cedar-trees by its side”. 

The Church of St. James the Less which serves the South Somerset village of Hambridge.

The Church of St. James the Less at Hambridge in South Somerset. The B3168 is on the other side of the wall in the background.

There are two Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard.  I give their details below:

Private Herbert H. Cleal, son of Daniel and Emily Cleal of Hambridge, died on 1 January 1919 aged 19.  He served with 2/8 Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. 

Signalman Richard Thomas Collins, son of Herbert and May Collins, and the wife of Alice Maud Collins, all of Hambridge, died on 15 November 1940 aged 24.  He served with the Royal Corps of Signals.

The crash of RAF Blenheim R3912 on Pawlett Hams in Somerset. Those lost are commemorated by a memorial plaque in the nearby village churchyard at Pawlett.

On 5 July 1942 a Bristol Blenheim Mk 4, a light bomber powered by two 905 hp Bristol Mercury engines, crashed at Pawlett Hams on the east side of the River Parrett in Somerset.  The aircraft, from No 13 Operational Training Unit, took off at 0950 hours on a cross country navigational and low level bombing exercise from its base at RAF Bicester in Oxfordshire.  At approximately 1220 hours the Blenheim was seen entering an area of cloud in a near vertical dive.   On emerging from the cloud, at an estimated height of 3,000 to 5,000 feet, the Blenheim straightened out, but then dived again and crashed.  All 3 crew members on board were killed.

The crew of Blenheim R3912 consisted of the pilot Sergeant James Falconer Anderson, RAF, aged 20, the observer Sergeant Adam Hogg, RAFVR, aged 33, and the wireless operator/air gunner Sergeant Gilbert Ingram McBoyle, RAFVR, aged 21.  They are commemorated on a memorial plaque in the British Legion garden of remembrance in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist Church at Pawlett, Somerset.

The British Legion garden of remembrance in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist Church in the village of Pawlett, Somerset. 

The memorial plaque at John the Baptist Church, Pawlett, Somerset commemorating the crew of RAF Blenheim R3912.

The picture below of the ill-fated Blenheim crew was kindly provided by Fiona Goldsmith PCC Secretary of St. John the Baptist Church.

South Petherton an historic hamstone village in South Somerset.

The large village of South Petherton is just off the A303 around 5 miles east of Ilminster in South Somerset.  In 2011 the village had a population of 3,367, having increased from 2,781 at the time of the 1981 census; it will be interesting to see the figures from the 2021 census.

The information board near the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul tells us:

“Situated in fertile arable country, South Petherton stands above the River Parrett, near The Fosse Way.  It was granted a Market Charter by King John in 1213. 

Agriculture has always been the basis of the community although South Petherton was the site of an important mint in the eleventh century and of the Sturton bronze foundry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as being home to glove making and cider production.

The historic heart is cantered around the fifteenth century church and the market square.  There are fine old houses throughout South Petherton including Giles Daubeney’s  “King Ina’s Palace” with parts dating back to the fourteenth century, and “Hayes End Manor” dating from 1610.”

Of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul Pevsner writes: “The church lies at the highest point of the little town, a large spreading building crowned by a tall a and prominent crossing tower.” 

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the South Somerset village of South Petherton.

The memorial in the churchyard to those who fell in World War One is approached up steps flanked by pillars on which there are memorial plaques to those lost in World War Two.

The War Memorials to those who fell in two World Wars in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul in the South Somerset village of South Petherton.

Field Marshal Lord Harding*, a notable veteran and commander of the British Eighth Army, was born in South Petherton at Rock House in Palmer Street.

Rock House in Palmer Street, South Petherton. The birthplace of Field Marshal Lord Harding.

*Views from Somerset: Field-Marshal Lord Harding of Petherton. Commemorated at Taunton Castle's Museum of Somerset. (viewfromsomerset.blogspot.com)

RAF night fighter ace Richard Playne Stevens. A tale of reckless bravery, and vengeance.

Eighty years ago this week RAF night fighter ace Richard Playne Stevens was killed while on a night fighter intruder sortie.  He is buried in the British Cemetery at Bergen Op Zoom in the Netherlands.  His wartime career was a remarkable one brought about, it seems, by tragedy.

I reproduce below the entry in Aces High (Neville Spearman, 1966) by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams.

“Stevens, from Ditchling, was a civil pilot before the war, flying 400 hours at night on the newspaper run between London and Paris.  He joined the RAF after the outbreak of war, aged 32, the maximum age for pilot training, and was posted as a pilot officer to 151 Squadron at the end of 1940 to fly Hurricanes at night on intruder missions.

His wife and children were killed on one of the early night blitzes on Manchester, and from then on he flew with complete disregard for his own life.

His method was to search the sky for the greatest concentration of anti-aircraft shell bursts, and fly there to find the enemy.  He pressed his attacks home so close that on one occasion an exploding bomber covered his wings with bits of debris and blood, which he refused to have removed.  Naturally, rumours about such a pilot were rife, and it was said by some that he screamed like a man demented whenever he contacted enemy bombers, but whether or not this was a true statement cannot be confirmed.

On the 15 January 1941 he claimed the squadron’s first night victories, destroying a Do 17 and a He 111.  He was only the third pilot to destroy two in one night, and he was awarded a DFC.  He then had ear trouble and was unable to fly for a while.

On 8 April he shot down two He 111s and two nights later got a Ju 88 and a He 111.  He then received a Bar to his DFC.

He destroyed another He 111 on 19 April, and on 7 May got two more.  He claimed another He 111 and a second probably destroyed on 10 May, and on 13 June destroyed one more.  He damaged one on the 22 June and on 3 July shot down a Ju 88.  He got one further victory, and then on 22 October got another Ju 88, his fourteenth and last confirmed claim.

At this time he was the RAF’s top scoring night fighter, leading all the radar-assisted pilots by a fair margin, his pre-war night-flying experience and his lack of any consideration for his own survival accounting for this.

In November he was posted as a flight commander to 253 Squadron, but it had been considered for some while that the way he was flying there could only be one end.  He received a DSO on 12 December, but three nights later failed to return from an intruder sortie.”

Flight Lieutenant Richard Playne Stevens was the son of Sidney Agar Stevens and Isabel Dora Stevens.  His late wife was Olive Mabel Stevens of Barwick, Somerset. 

My thoughts on Peter Hitchens' "The Phoney Victory - The World War Two Illusion".

Peter Hitchens’ The Phoney Victory – The World War Two Illusion (I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2018) is an extremely thought provoking read which argues that Great Britain did not have much of a victory in WW2.  By the end of hostilities this country was broke, the Empire unsustainable, and the Poles - for whom we went to war - were left under Soviet communist rule and were not even allowed to participate in any victory parades.

He also exposes the harsh reality of Churchill’s romantic idea of the “special relationship” with the USA.  Churchill’s flawed decision making and his manipulation of events come under scrutiny as well.

The book chapter by chapter.

Ch.1. The British Guarantee to Poland of March 1939.

Mr Hitchens argues that there were some in the British political establishment who wanted war with Germany at all costs.  He suggests that one of the reasons was to prove Britain’s standing as a “great power”, another was that “something must be done” to stop German expansion.

The British guarantee to Poland was a pretext for war with Germany, and Germany alone.  It excluded coming to Poland’s aid if attacked by Russia.

Ch.2 Plucky little Poland.

Hitchens points out that Poland was not a paragon of democratic virtue.  It was governed by a military dictatorship and was passively anti-Semitic.  Furthermore, after Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany, parts of that stricken country were seized by Poland, with Hitler’s approval.

 Ch.3 Appeasement and Pacifism . . . or “The Left has its Cake and Eats it.”

In the late 1930s Tory Prime Ministers Baldwin and Chamberlain had begun building up the RAF and RN for defence, but the British economy could not support the spending required for a large “continental army”.  Labour and the Left opposed such defensive rearmament, but hypocritically campaigned against appeasement.

Ch. 4 The war we could not afford.

With British rearmament under way the government sought to buy armaments from the USA, but the USA refused to give any loans or credit as Britain, and indeed France, had reneged on debts owed to the USA following WW1.   Consequently, American politicians would only allow the sale of supplies and war materials on a cash and carry basis.  By January 1941, after only 16 months of war, Britain had run out of cash!

Ch.5 America First.

Of the British belief that they have with the USA some sort of “benevolent and sweet-natured ‘special relationship’”, Hitchens has this to say: “Not only is there no such thing, there is a case for saying that the USA has often singled this country out for exceptionally harsh treatment”.

Twice in the book he tells us that in 1919 Woodrow Wilson warned the British to stop imagining Americans were their cousins, or even Anglo-Saxons.

As in the twentieth century the USA became evermore economically powerful it grew increasingly resentful of British naval supremacy, and had absolutely no intention of going to war to protect or save the British Empire.  In fact, I would point out that Theodore Roosevelt once advocated seizing Canada, a British Dominion, by force.

Hitchens also notes that: “If Hitler had not voluntarily declared war on the USA after Pearl Harbour, it is far from certain that America would ever have become directly involved in the European War”.  I have heard similar comments from American historians and commentators in Ken Burns’ documentary The Roosevelts – An Intimate History, and Jeremy Isaacs’ The World at War.

Ch.6 The Invasion That Never Was.

Hitchens suggests that both Hitler and Churchill did not take an invasion of Britain seriously.  As Hitchens states: “The idea of an invasion, never a reality, suited both men at the time.  For Hitler it was a way of persuading a battered, unhappy British population to press their leaders to give in.  For Churchill, more successfully, it was a way to raise morale, production and military effectiveness by creating a constant atmosphere of tension and danger”.

Mr Hitchens informs us that as early as 12 July 1940 Jock Colville, Churchill’s private secretary, overheard Churchill in conversation with leading British generals stating that he doubted whether invasion was a serious menace, but intended to give the opposite impression.

After naval losses in the Norwegian Campaign, the Germans did not have, if they ever did, enough cruisers and destroyers to protect an invasion on a narrow front, let alone a broad front.  On 7 August 1940, before the Battle of Britain began in earnest, General Franz Halder expostulated, according to Hitchens: “I regard their (his naval counterparts) proposal as complete suicide. I might just as well put those troops that have been landed straight through a sausage machine.”

Hitchens also points to the decision taken, while the Battle of Britain was at its height, to despatch tanks and Hurricanes to the Middle East!

Ch.7  In Peril on the Sea.

This chapter is centred on the meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.  Mr Hitchens seems unimpressed by its outcome.  Be that as it may, he ‘sails’ off all over the world to opine on Atlantic Convoys, British Mediterranean strategy, convoying supplies of British military hardware to Russia, the defence of Singapore and Malaya, and British obligations to Australia and New Zealand.

Hitchens appears to support A. J. P. Taylor (The Second World War and its Aftermath) who submits both that Britain should have abandoned the Mediterranean when Italy entered the war, and the attempt to build a strategic bomber force.  Mr Hitchens suggests that the resources saved should have been used to protect Atlantic Convoys and confront Japanese expansion in the Far East.  Such policies would have resulted in Britain not being engaged with German land forces anywhere or being able to attack Germany itself from the air.  In such circumstances I question whether there was any point in being at war with Germany at all.

Hitchens quotes A. J. P. Taylor’s opinion that in 1941 Crete was lost for the lack of three fighter squadrons.  He also points out that the defence of Singapore and Malaya would have been transformed if the 676 fighters and 446 tanks sent by Churchill to Russia in 1941 had gone there instead.  They are correct.

However, I would point out that there were even more fighter aircraft available in 1941 than Hitchens and Taylor were aware of.  From the start of 1941 hundreds of Spitfires and Hurricanes from Fighter Command were being sent almost daily on fruitless operations over northern France in an ineffective attempt to divert Luftwaffe fighter groups from The East.  In the course of that year over 462 British fighter pilots were lost – more than in the Battle of Britain.*  I suggest those pilots and aircraft would have been of very much more use in Crete, the wider Mediterranean area, and the Far East.

*Denis Richards, Royal Air Force 1939-1945 Vol 1, The Fight at Odds (HMSO 1953).

Ch.8 Gomorrah.

The title of this chapter was the code name for RAF Bomber Command’s attack on Hamburg in the summer of 1943.  Hitchens believes the policy of carrying out such attacks on cities was immoral and ineffective.   However, he attaches no blame to the bomber crews themselves and his verdict on their chief, Sir Arthur Harris, is very fair, as this extensive quote from the book reveals:

“Not long after Dunkirk, the language of British leaders began to take on a rather fearsome tone.  Winston Churchill speculated in a letter of 8 July 1940 to his friend and Minister of Aircraft Production, the press magnate Lord (Max) Beaverbrook, that an ‘absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland’ would help bring Hitler down.  Arthur Harris, later the chief of RAF Bomber Command, realised the significance of these extraordinary words.  Perhaps not wholly trusting politicians to defend the actions they had ordered if they later became unpopular or not respectable (as they did), he kept a copy of the letter.

Harris commendably refused a peerage in 1946 because postwar sensitivity had denied his bomber crews a campaign medal.  Harris, though an unattractive man, emerges from this with some integrity.  When a man of his sort was needed to pursue a bloody form of warfare without hesitation, he was welcomed in the councils of the great and treated with courtesy.  When, later, a startled and chastened world understood what he had actually done, he was urged to leave by the tradesmen’s entrance.  He made it very clear that he knew what was happening, and despised those who had once fawned on him and now dismissed him.  They had given him his mandate.  As far as he was concerned, they bore the ultimate responsibility.”

I would argue that Bomber Command’s campaign was far from ineffective.   Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments and War Production, when interviewed on Jeremy Isaacs’ The World at War said that another six raids on German cities such as that carried out on Hamburg would have ended the war.  He also considered that from 1943 the bombing of Germany was, in effect, a “second front”.

Furthermore, Adam Tooze in his The Wages of Destruction – The Making and Breaking of The Nazi Economy (Penguin Books, 2007) writes of speeches made by Speer in the autumn of 1943:

“Speer reminded his audience of his triumphant address to the Sportspalast only a few months earlier, at which he had promised increases in armaments production of 15 – 20 per cent per month.  The RAF’s sustained attack on the Ruhr had put paid to that.  ‘Since the beginning of the air attacks,’ Speer explained, ‘we have it is sure, had a slow rise in production but only 3 to 5 per cent monthly.  That is absolutely insufficient’.  In fact, Speer was over-optimistic.  The monthly index of armaments showed no consistent increase whatsoever in the second half of 1943.”

Ch.9 Orderly and Humane.

This chapter deals with the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Germans from large parts of central Europe after the ‘Good War’.

My concluding thoughts.

Peter Hitchens suggests in The Phoney Victory that Britain entered World War Two at the wrong time for the wrong reason with insufficient finances and inadequate military resources, and then fought the war with a highly dubious strategy only to end bankrupt with the Empire disintegrating, and a ‘pensioner’ of the USA.  After such a devastating analysis, I find it surprising, to put it mildly, that he thinks Winston Churchill was correct in continuing the war in 1940!

The Somerset village of Baltonsborough, its Church of St. Dunstan, and war memorial garden.

The Somerset village of Baltonsborough lies in countryside near the River Brue not far west of The Fosse Way (A37).

The fields and meadows which surround Baltonsborough are charmingly described by Paul Newman in his Somerset Villages (Robert Hale Ltd, 1986): “Visual titillation aside, the country is passing fair.  Apple orchards abound, there are many fine stone barns and cobbled together bridges, plus sufficient trees and hedgerows to hold monotony at bay.  Undramatic country, tamed by thousands of years of tree-felling, pasturing and ploughing, its charm becomes apparent in summer when all the grasses, nettle patches and hedgerow life is astir and burgeoning.

Baltonsborough is in the midst of this countryside, south of Kennard Moor.  An intricate network of droves leads into the village which has several centres.  The main part clusters around the old church, which is thrust out into a meadow and beckons from the ragged willowy lanes.”

The village was once one of the 12 hides, or manors, of Glastonbury Abbey so it seems fitting that St. Dunstan, who was made abbot of Glastonbury in the tenth century, was born in Baltonsborough sometime between 909 and 925.  While at Glastonbury Abbey, Dunstan demonstrated his prowess as a drainage engineer.  The River Brue used to spread over the marshy meadows around Baltonsborough until Dunstan instigated the building of a series of weirs and a ditch to drain the area.

The fame and wealth of Glastonbury increased under Dunstan’s efficient and diligent supervision.  Therefore it is no surprise that he eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury where he tried to expand his ideas, both religious and managerial, throughout Anglo-Saxon England.

Understandably, Baltonsborough’s village church is named for St. Dunstan.  Pevsner describes the church as: “Perpendicular and of no special architectural interest.  The most handsome touch is the weather-vane on the w tower, with very scrolly iron-work made by the local blacksmith early in the C19.  It stands on a pyramid roof rising behind the battlements of the tower.”

The Church of St. Dunstan in the Somerset village of Baltonsborough.

The weather-vane on the tower of  St. Dunstan's Church, Baltonsborough, Somerset.

Baltonsborough’s war memorial garden is at the junction of Church Lane and Martin Street at the southern extremity of the village.  A 15inch BL (breech loading) siege howitzer shell casing, of the type originally used by the Royal Navy, but passed to the Army, was given to Baltonsborough by the National War Savings Committee in recognition of the village’s contribution in raising money during Gun Week.

The war memorial garden in the Somerset village of Baltonsborough.

The National War Savings Committee was set up in 1916 to encourage communities to raise money for the war effort.  It was responsible for a series of fund raising initiatives, including War Weapons Week, Tank Week and Feed the Guns Week.

The memorial shell casing is listed Grade 2 as according to Historic England: “It is a highly unusual and broodingly eloquent commemorative monument”.

The shell was unveiled in 1922 at the same time as the traditional stone memorial cross.  The plaque on the shell lists the names of the 68 who served, with a blue Maltese Cross marking the names of the six who did not return.

The plaque on the 15inch shell casing in the war memorial garden at Baltonsborough in Somerset.  Note the number of times the surname Bush appears - all appear to have survived!

The traditional memorial cross bears the names of the six who were killed in World War One and three killed in World War Two.  The name of Second Lieutenant John Richings, Royal Tank Regiment, who died on 28 May 1942 aged 25, was originally not included at the request of his family.  However, his name appears to have been added sometime after the year 2000.   John Somerset Richings is also remembered on the Alamein Memorial in Egypt.  He was the son of the Revd Basil Grafton Richings, and his wife Gwendolen, of Baltonsborough.